Grand-piano action



C. A. AHLSTROM. GRAND PIANO ACTION. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 20, I920.

Patented Nov. 21, 1922.

UNITED STATES CHARLES AHLSTROM, OF JAMESTOWN, NEW YORK.

GRAND-PIANO ACTION.

Application filed September 20, 1920. Serial No. 411,630.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES A. AL'IL- sTRoM, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of Jamestown, in the county of Chautauqua and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Grand-Piano Actions, of which the following, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

The invention relates to grand p ano actions; and the object of the improvement s to provide, first, an action with a resilient expanding wippen, that is, a wippen made in two parts which are hinged to one another at one end and separated by a spring at the other end to retain the keys at their normal level and touch when the hammers are raised nearer to the strings, each key being actuated by an independent spring, the lift being direct and normal in all positions, yet sympathetically sensitive, thereby aiding in the resiliency of repetition and in obtaining pianissimo effects; and second, provide a jack which eliminates a certain amount of friction between the jack and the hammer knuckle, the repetition lever being recessed on its under side for relief in its rebound action, the jack bearing against the full width of the under side of said repetition lever and said repetition lever bearing against the hammer, knuckle on the upper side with its full width,'the combined expanding wippen and improved jack construction causing the hammer to strike all the strings of each note alike, therebypreserving the face of the hammer and giving a full resonant quality to the strings; and the invention consists in the novel features and combinations hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional view of the piano action showing a side elevation of the improved expanding wippen and jack and repetition lever construction with the parts in the normal position, the raised position for the hammer and parts being shown in dotted outline; and Fig. 2 is a similar View showing the parts of the action with the front end of the key depressed and after the stroke of the hammer is delivered on the string, the hammerresting upon aback check and the expanding wippen being in the lifting position, the jack being shown in the rebounded position with its upper end in the recess on the under side of the repetition lever; and Fig. 3 8 plan view .of the under side of said repetit on lever showing the graphited or blackleaied recess and lifting surface for the ac Like characters of reference refer to corresponding parts in the several views.

The numeral 10 designates the string or rather the strings, since a piano usually has a plurality of strings which are simultaneously struck by one hammer to produce the desired note.

The numeral 11 designates the hammer which has the head 12 and stem or shank 13 which is hinged at 14 to the flange 15 which is attached on the action rail 16. The hammer stem or shank 13 has the hammer knuckle 17 at the desired point on its under side, which hammer knuckle extends entirely across the graphited or black-leaded face of the repetition lever 18 upon which said knuckle rests.

' The repetition lever 18 is pivotally mounted on the upper end of the, standard 19 on the wippen beam 20, the central portion of said repetition lever 18 being recessed away at 21 to be received in the upper end of said standard 19. The repetition lever 18 has the crosswise recess 22 on its under side for the felted upper end 23 on the jack 24, which jack is pivotally mounted at 25 in the end of the wippen beam 20.

' The wippen beam 20 is pivotally attached at 26 to the flange 27 on the wippen rail 28, and has the downward projection 29 on its under side to which is pivotally attached the lower portion or wippen lever 30 extending out to the rear of said projection .29 as shown at 31 to prevent the wippen lever 30 from dropping downward out of control and having the downwardly projecting felted front end 32 which rests upon the. capstan screw 33 on the key 35.

A coil spring 34 is provided between the front end of the wippen lever 32 and the main portion of the wippen 20 to thereby provide an expanding wippen in conjunction with the parts 20 and 30, that is, one in which the wippen beam 20 and lever 30 can move apart during the action of the key 35 in raising the compound wippen 20 30 and the repetition lever 18 with the hammer knuckle 17 and hammer 11 to cause said hammer to strike the string 10. The action of the repetition lever 18 is regulated by means of the adjusting screw 36 which ex- 1 tends through on the under side of the flange 15 and also by the bridled spring 37 and stop 38.

The hammer head 12 has the downward projection 39, which engages the back check 40 on the rear end of the key 35 as the hammer 11 rebounds from the string 10, as shown in Fig. 2. The back check a0 is mounted on the wire 41 which is inserted in the rear end of the key 35 and extends up to the correct position to receive saiddownward projection 39 on the wooden portion of the hammer head 12. As the key drops back into the normal position, the back check 1O releases the hammer head 12 and lets the hammer drop back onto the hammer rest rail 42. V7 hen the hammer rest rail 42 is raised to raise all the hammers 11 nearer the strings for pianissimo and repetition effects, as shown in dotted outline in Fig. 1, the tension of the resilient expanding wippen 2O 30 and the improved jack construction causes the hammer to strike all the strings of each note alike, thereby giving a full resonant quality to the tone and retains the normal touch for the key in all positions, the expanding wippen with its spring 3-1 automatically taking care of the change in pos1t1on.

A horizontally pro ecting arm 43 extends out from the lower end of the jack 24: be-

neath the regulating button i l on the rail 45 to release or trip the jack 2% from. beneath the lower side of the repetition lever 18 so that the upper end of the jack drops into the crosswise recess 22 when'the rear end of the key 35 is in the raised position as shown in Fig. 2. The hammer knuckle 17 rests constantly upon the carbonized upper side of the repetition. lever 18, thereby always being in readiness for the upward lift of the hammer 11 without contact with the jack, thereby eliminating all friction between the jaek and hammer knuckle.

' A-regulating button 46 is provided on the jack 2 1 to bear against the stop 47 on the wippen beam 20 so as to ensure that the jack 24 will give the upward impulse to the hammer knuckle 17 and the hammer 11 when pression of the front end of said key and will instantly drop back to its normal position against the under side of the hammer knuckle 17 the instant the key 35 is released by the finger of the player. The jack 24 has a spring 48 and loop 19 to control the movement of the jack and draw it beneath the shoulder 50 of the repetition lever 18 beneath the hammer knuckle 17 upon the return of the parts to normal position. All the contacting portions are black-leaded to render their action as noiseless and frictionless as possible.

The operation of the piano action in playing is as follows: The player starts with the key and action parts in the normal position as shown in Fig. 1. The pressure of the finger of the player on the front end of the key 35 raises its rear end as it balances on the pin'5l on the key frame 52, thereby raising the capstan screw 33 and the action parts resting thereon. The wippen beam 20 rests upon the wippen lever 30 and the compound wippen will act substantially the same as the single wippen common to piano actions. The felted upper end 23 of the jack 24 braces squarely against the full breadth of the shoulder 50 of the repetition lever 18, giving the hammer knuckle 17 which rests upon the upper side of the repetition lever 18 a strong clean lift for striking which throws the hammer 11 against the strings 10 with a firm percussion blow. This happens substantially the same whether the hammers 11 are in their normal full stroke position or in their raised position, as shown in dotted outline in Fig. 1 for pianissimo effects, the touch, as hereinbefore described, retaining thesame depth in either position, the spring 34 holding the front ends of the keys 35 at their normal level in all positions of the piano action parts.

The wippen lever 30 with its downward projection 32 which rests upon the capstan screw 33 assists the wippen beam 20 in its action, imparting to the key 35 greater ease of action in starting the hammer 11 in its upward movement and giving a consequent lightness of touch. The main function, however, of the wippen lever 30 with its spring 34 is to act as an automatic resilient expanding member for the two parts 20 and 30 of the compound wippen to thereby hold the key 35 in normal downward position so that it responds instantly at its rear when the hammer is raised into the pianissimo position. It is apparent that the new con struction for the jack and repetition lever in combination with the hammer knuckle and hammer gives added positiveness to the action between these parts so that said parts cannot stick and also give added firmness I claim as new:

1. In a grand piano action, in combination with a hammer, a compound expandable wippen, an independent spring. between the parts of said compound wippen, control tensioned 3' ack to the lift of the hammers and increases the durability of the parts. the rear end of the key is raised by the degaging the under side of said repetition lever to give an impetus to said hammer through the actuation of said wippen.

3. In a grand piano action, the combination of a hammer, a hammer knuckle on the shank of said hammer, a wippen beam hinged to the wippen rail, a repetition lever pivotally mounted on said wippen beam and adapted to receive said hammer knuckle on its upper surface, a jack pivotally mounted in the forward end of said wippen beam and extended up to support the forward end of said repetition lever, said repetition lever having a crosswise recess on its under side adjacent the supporting surface for the upper end of said jack to receive said upper end in said recess when the hammer rebounds.

4. In a grand piano action, the combination of a wippen beam hinged to the wippen rail, a wippen lever hinged to the under side of said wippen beam, a coil spring between said wippen lever and said wippen beam to provide a compound expanding wippen, a repetition lever pivotally mounted on said wippen beam, a hammer and hammer knuckle receivable upon the upper side of said repetition lever, a resilient jack pivotally mounted in the forward end of said wippen beam and extending up to support the forward end of said repetition lever, said repetition lever having a crosswise recess on its under side to receive the upper end of said jack when the hammer rebounds.

In a grand piano action, the combination with a hammer of a compound wippen comprising a wippen beam hinged to the wippen rail, a wippen lever pivotally attached on the lower side of said wippen beam and extending to the rear of the point of its pivotal attachment to prevent the dropping of said wippen lever, the front end of said wippen lever extending downward to be received upon the capstan screw of the key, a coil spring between said wippen beam and front end of said wippen lever to lift said beam from said wippen lever, a spring repetition lever pivotally mounted on a standard central of said wippen beam to receive the hammer knuckle on the upper surface of the same, a spring jack pivotally attached in the forward end of said wippen beam and extended up to support the forward end of said repetition lever, said repetition lever having a crosswise recess on its under side to receive the felted upper end of said jack, and a stop on said wippen beam for said jack to hold the same in normal position.

6. In a grand piano action, in combination with a hammer, a wippen having a beam and a lever pivoted thereto, the lever being pivoted between its ends to the beam and having one end engageable therewith to limit movement of the opposite end away from the beam, a spring between the said opposite end of the lever and the beam, and a jack and repetition lever pivotally mounted on the beam to percussionally lift the hammer.

7. In a grand piano action, in combination with a hammer, a compound wippen, an independent spring between the parts of the wippen, said wippen parts having engageable portions to control the relative spreading of the wippen parts, and a jack and repetltion lever on the wippen to percussionally lift the hammer.

8. In a grand piano action, in combination with a hammer, a wippen composed of a pair of parts having relative spreading movement therebetween, an independent spring between the wippen parts, means whereby to limit the relative spreading of the wippen parts, and a jack and repetition lever on the wippen to percussionally lift the hammer.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature in the resence of two witnesses.

CHA LES A. AHLSTROM.

WVitnesses:

G. V. SwANsoN THEO. THOMAS IIAAG. 

